100 Drabbles Challenge
by willowplwm
Summary: Various short drabbles based on words and short phrases
1. Possession

'Possession'

She awoke abruptly. Listening, she lay still, all sleep banished from her mind. A sound had woken her up, but she did not sense a threat. Though her body tensed as it prepared for an unknown fight, she did not get up. A high, quiet creak echoed outside, and she looked toward the wall. A massive outline was silhoutted against the pale paper door; she recognized Po's wide form. The panda shifted slightly outside her door, making another creak. She relaxed, and closed her eyes. Po. This was definitely not the first time the panda had snuck out at night, mainly for a midnight snack; and if there was any time for an unhappy binge, it was now.

But he didn't move. Quietly, she heard the door to her room open, heard the soft sound of Po's fur as it scraped against the door frame. Without a word the giant panda closed the door and lowered himself down, and laid on the floor beside her bed. She looked over and down at him; he stared at the ceiling, jade eyes a conglomeration of fear, confusion, and worry. He looked trapped, deep within his own mind, staring at whatever unhappy thoughts ran across his mind, completely miserable. Rarely had she seen him look she glum. Eyebrows furrowed, she turned and laid back again for a moment. Even from on the bed she could feel his intense body heat, yet the sound of him shivering made her look over again.

She nimbly climbed down and sat at his side - and still he stared unceasingly at the ceiling, the only indication that he had noted her movement a further tensing in his muscles. Then, without warning he reached over and grabbed her into a tight bear hug, pulling her across his belly, holding her close and without any intention of releasing her. Slightly shocked, she couldn't get free, not easily, not without hurting him; his massive arms pinned hers to her sides. He buried his face into the back of her neck; his breath was warm on her fur. Held half across him, she lay very uncomfortably, one leg crouched under her and the other twisted unfavorably. The panda gave no signs of letting go. With difficulty, she tried to move, but he gripped her tighter; trying to pull one hand loose, Po suddenly pulled her closer. She looked up at his face, the lines of worry digging deep into his skin, the reflections of the muted moonlight through the paper walls shivering slightly in his eyes. She softly pushed against him.

"I'm not going anywhere," she murmered, softer than she had spoken in a long time. When she pushed against him more he slowly loosened his grip around her arms and middle, but instead of escaping she lay back down, pushing her head under his chin, chest across his and Po's arms still around her. She rested her arm across his chest, the other folded against her side, and used his shoulder as a pillow. He tucked his chin over her forehead and gently she nuzzled his neck, until he finally softened his hold on her, laying one arm to relax beneath her and the hand resting on her waist, with the other her shoulder. Folded against him, she lay comfortably, until softly she slept once more. But his eyes remained open for hours, until exhaustion finally claimed him, and he fell into a restless sleep.


	2. Fortitude

'Fortitude'

It was a dark and dreary night...

...seriously. Though the cloud cover had retained a few degrees of heat, it was not nearly enough to make the evening at all pleasant. Were they returning from a mission? Yes. Did they totally save China and kick butt all along the way? Absolutely. Did they make it completely back?

Ehhh...not yet.

Did they get caught in the mouth of a snowstorm?

Definitely.

They had taken shelter as darkness fell - even Master Tigress would be unable to see in the pitch-black of a new moon - and snow covered the mouth of their rough, small cave that made a small hollow through the mountainside. Occasionally gusts of unpleasantly frigid wind nipped at the edge of everyone's fortitude, and made their small fire splutter and waver close to the edge of blowing out completely. Their journey to the cave's entrance had not been an easy one; fighting their way through deep drifts of snow, being forced to cut around buried boulders, and being battered by the ferocious wind, the mountain fought them all the way. Not even Crane could fight the wind.

Even worse, halfway to the cave they discovered that one member had fallen behind. Though everybody suffered through the cold, mainly by toughing it out, Master Viper did not quite have that luxury of simply ignoring the frigid weather. Though her training could teacher her to disregard hot, cold, and even pain, it could not stop her from being a reptile, and as the weather turned steadily worse Viper fell to the back. She was visibly slowed by the cold. As the others stopped and turned back she looked thoroughly miserable and a bit ashamed of appearing weak because of, as she said, 'a little wind'.

"Oh, come on, Viper," Po said, battling a wide snow drift to reach her.

"I've got all this fur, and even I'M cold," he said as his scarf was torn away in the wind, walking back the path he had just created as she slithered slowly through the top layer of snow; in response her mouth hardened and she refused to stop or hear the others' offers of help and soothing words, even when Mantis admitted that he was having to take shelter in the fur on Monkey's shoulder. They all slowed to stay with her, which made her face more miserable. Turning slightly to look at the others in his peripheral vision, Po pursed his lips not-at-all suspiciously, walked along all too nonchalantly, then, (completely on accident, of course), grabbed the snake and flung her over his shoulder. She gave an indignant cry, but it quickly burned down into a moan of absolute relief as she sank into his fur, winding herself tightly around his neck. Po's eye twitched slightly as she curled tighter, burying herself into the dense underlayer, completely protected from the stinging cold and wind. He didn't mention her half-choking him and waded throug the drift past the rather incredulous others, trying to look thoroughly innocent. When the group found the small cave and built a shaky fire Po poked her a little and asked her to loosen up a bit.

"We've got a fire now, you know," he said, wedging a finger between his neck and her body and trying to pry her loose. Viper closed her eyes.

"I know," she said simply, and Po's face fell, much to Monkey and Mantis's amusement.

"You asked for it, buddy!" Monkey said, patting Po on the shoulder as he and Mantis laughed. At the entrance of the cave, Master Tigress turned away from the blasting wind, a rather sour look on ther face. When Po looked at her questioningly she shook her head.

"It's turning into a storm. I don't know if it's going to quit by morning or not. We'll certainly be stuck in here until then," she said dourly, sitting down by the fire even as another gust threatened to blow it out. Po leaned over and nudged her arm. He refused to shiver in front of Tigress.

"Oh come on, it's not so baaa..." His voice died away at the serious look on her face before shrugging bemusedly, at which time he noticed that Monkey's hand was still on his shoulder.

"Uh...Monkey?" he said, eyebrow raised.

"Hmm?" Po gestured to the hand still buried in his fur.

"Oh, uh..." he removed his hand and, feeling a little silly, tucked it under his arm to keep it warm. "Sorry, Po."

"You're just very warm," Viper murmered in contentment. Po sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"Oh. Must be my internal awesomeness, I guess," he said. Mantis jumped from Monkey's shoulder to Po's forehead. "Nah, I think it's all that, uh-"

"Fat?" Po finished archaicly.

"Come on, man, how many times do I have to tell you I was going to say 'fur'?" Mantis cried, slapping Po on the forehead before crawling down his nose and jumping back to Monkey.

"Sure you were."

"I don't care what it is, I'm staying." Viper sighed. Po grimaced as she tightened again.

Not long after night fell competely did the group decide to sleep. Tigress stayed up as the first watch - nobody argued with her, not wanting to have to go close to the chilly cave entrance and away from the warmth deeper inside. The other five huddled close to their small fire, but slowly, as the night wore on the wind blew colder and harsher, rattling everybody's nerves, and gravitate they did toward the panda. Close to one in the morning Tigress turned from her post as the mouth of the cave and looked toward the sleeping group. The mountain had howled its winds to tear at her face, had thrown snow at her for hours. Out of the whole group, she bore it best, but even as an unmerciful gust blew straight at her, permeating through her thick fur, she could not admit that she wasn't cold. Looking at the rest of the group, a coiled mass of fur and feathers around Po's fighting warmth, she felt even a bit chillier. She walked from the mouth of the cave, deciding her shift was officially over, but was unable to decide on who should take it next; they had all inclined toward the panda, curled or coiled against him, too comfortable to disturb. Crane awoke at her approach and, always the pillar of responsibility, took over the next shift, settling at the entrance with a look of thoroughly begrudged fortitude.

Po awoke from steady slumber at movement by his side. A large, lithe form lay down beside him, nudging its head between his arm and his chest, pushing its body close to his. Without opening his eyes, he turned his head back to the center, smiling widely as he fell asleep again. Surrounded by friends.

The storm ended very shortly before dawn arrived. The mouth of the cave had almost been blocked completely by the drifts of new snow. Crane shivered at his post, one leg drawn underneath his body, neck tucked down and hat over his eyes, the top of it covered with snow. He looked up at the sound of somebody struggling in the snow and cautiously poked his head out of what was left uncovered of the entrance; Master Shifu, searching for the group, Po's lost scarf wrapped around his wrist, noticed him and gladly dropped into the cave. Crane bowed rather tensely, stiff from the cold.

"I am glad that you were able to find shelter..." Shifu began, before noticing the huddle in the back of the cave, a mass of gold, orange, and monochrome fur that breathed as many. Mantis was still tucked into the fur of Monkey's shoulder, while Master Monkey himself had pushed up against the panda's right arm, Po's large belly sheltering him from the wind. Viper was barely visible, her scales hardly winking out from under Po's chin. Po himself was awake, and, waving at Master Shifu, pointed excitedly to the iron lady herself: Tigress curled in a circle atop his stomach like a gigantic cat. Po waved his arms in fanboyish delight, making a fistpump in the air and grinning like a damn fool.

* * *

><p>(AN): Frankly, I was wondering how it was, in the second movie, that Viper seemed to do perfectly fine while the group was travelling through a snowy mountainside on the way to Gongmen city - snakes are cold-blooded, aren't they, so shouldn't she be a little bit affected by the cold?

Frankly, though, I know little to nothing about reptiles, so if anybody knows that it would be normal for her not to be affected, please correct me

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda


	3. Opportunity

Opportunity

Her world became a splitting headache. She touched a hand to her forehead, feeling stiff bandages.

"Ah..." Groaning, she pushed onto an elbow, gritting her teeth with the pain. A rather worried voice came from close beside her.

"Oh, no, don't move, don't move, you shouldn't get up..."

She kept her eyes closed tight against the migraine, but didn't lie down.

"Ow...what happened?" she asked softly.

"You, ah...well, you kind of...you _might_ have hit your head a tiny, _little _itty-bitty bit," said the voice again. Her headache beginning to slowly dwindle, she cracked her eyes. Her company took vague shape.

"Shifu says you have a slight concussion. You really shouldn't be moving around too much, you know." He said. She blinked at him to focus him more; a panda. He looked thoroughly worried. She grimaced and slowly sat up, ignoring his agitation.

"How-how do you feel?"

She snorted.

"Like I have a concussion. I'll be fine, panda, I just...woah." She swayed, a mixture of vertigo and nausea telling her to lie back down quickly. The panda stood and rushed at her side.

"Tigress! Tigress are you ok?" He helped her lay down again, panic in his voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What did you just call me?"

He furrowed his brows in confusion. "Uh, Tigress? That's your name-?"

"I'm sure my parents had to have had more originality than that," she said sarcastically. "What's my name?"

The panda sat down again.

"Well, uh, I don't actually know. I'm sure you have one, we just all kind of call you Tigress. And you don't remember this...?"

She shook her head.

"Do you remember anything?" She tried to control her patience; her headache had reached stopped shrinking and was now steadily pounding the inside of her skull.

"No, I don't remember anything. I'd appreciate it if you would introduce yourself," she said curtly. He scratched the back of his neck, looking more worried than ever.

"_Who are_ you?" She prompted. Looking back at her, he hesitated a moment.

"I'm, I'm Po, I'm, uh...I'm, I'm your boyfriend." He said, and looked back at her, as if for her approval. She raised an eyebrow.

"Really? You're really my boyfriend?" He nodded enthusiastically. She shrugged. "Alright then; I suppose that will do. You said something about some Shifu? He's been taking care of this?"  
>The panda nodded.<p>

"Fine. So, Po, will you take me to that Shifu person? Or at least ask him to come in here?" Po nodded, getting up again. "Yeah, I don't really want to try sitting up again..." She closed her eyes, and relaxed her head, fighting the pounding between her temples. She heard the panda leave; silence. Her senses tingled with the slightest bits of information: the creak of a floorboard above, a slight vibration of footsteps. The taste of bitter bile in her mouth, but she swallowed her nausea and forced herself to lie still and listen. She could not remember a thing.

Several minutes passed before Po returned, preceeded by an older red panda whose eyes looked tired and troubled. He limped very slightly when he walked.

"Tigress: you say you cannot remember anything?" Immense familiarity flowed through her at the sound of his voice, but her memory did not awaken. He gingerly examined her skull, thin fingers tender against her fur.

"I feared that something like this would happen, but I do not believe it will be permanant." She smiled at him.

"Do you know how long it will take?" Po asked. The old red panda frowned.  
>"No, I'm sorry, Tigress. I do not know if it will be two days, or two months. It will take time for your injury to heal, and certainly your memory will not return until then," he said grimly. She pursed her lips.<p>

"Well," she said, and managed to sit up this time. "I might as well get moving, then." Shifu raised a hand as Po began to object. "No. Let her walk around a bit - just don't over-exert yourself," he added.

Tigress fought an increased headache as she slowly stood up, but managed to smile at him. She grabbed Po's arm as her vertigo returned, and, with his assistance, walked to the door. He paused at the door, and she steadied herself on his arm until the black spots receeded from her eyesight. Shifu followed them out.

"Uh, what counts as 'over-exerting herself'?" Po asked. Shifu looked up at him. "She probably should not go farther than the barracks, Po. Just walking."

Tigress explored her suddenly unfamiliar surroundings, one arm around the panda's shoulders, his arm steady at her waist.

"So, what's with calling me 'Tigress', anyway? That's really all you call me?" She asked. Po looked at the ceiling.

"Well, we call you Master Tigress sometimes, but we're all your friends, so...yeah, 'Master'," he said to her questioning look. "You're the master of Tiger style kung-fu." She raised her eyebrows; interesting.

"And you? You are a master as well? But that Shifu calls you Po?" He nodded. "Po, or 'Panda', if he's really annoyed at me. Or 'Dragon Warrior', sometimes. Only Po if he's in a good mood. I think 'Tigress' is kind of a mixture of a name and a title, you know? So we call you Tigress, me and the other masters." She didn't answer. They continued to walk around, slowly, for a while in silence.

"I remembered some familiarity when that Shifu spoke," she said after several minutes. "I know him well?" Po nodded.

"Since you were a cub. Technically he's your adoptive father along with your teacher, but you still call him Shifu, so...yeah..." He glanced sideways at her.

"So, you don't have a problem with me being your boyfriend? I mean, right now I'm a total stranger to you," he pointed out. Tigress nodded; they turned into a kitchen.

"Yes, but you're cute, and you seem like a nice guy," she said. "At the moment, I have no problem." Besides having a bump on my head and no memory, she thought, but kept silent.

Dinner that night was an interesting one. Seven to the table, all of them talking to her and asking her questions, or telling her about themselves. Po introduced her as they came in at different times.

"This is Mantis, and Viper and Crane..." he said. Tigress smiled at them. "I should have guessed," she muttered.

"That's Monkey..."

"You don't say?" She said, grinning at the simian. The four seemed very bemused at her current lapse of memory, but were more than pleased to provide her with what she had forgotten. She was really quite surprised when told that she didn't seem to be herself; she quite rather had the impression that they were a little wary of her. But, either way, she felt more than welcome, and even more eager to regain her memory. The weird bit came in the middle of dinner.

The noodle soup Po had fixed felt quite nostalgic on her tongue; thoroughly enjoying herself at the stories Shifu and the four told her, she nodded over to the panda fixing his bowl.

"So, how long have Po and I been dating?" she asked.

There was a crash. Po had broken his bowl.

The five at the table were incredulous with silence, staring at her with the strangest faces. She looked at Po's back, where he stood stock-still at the counter, a broken shard still in his hand.

"Oh...that...wasn't publically known?" she asked. No, certainly not. Monkey had his hands clapped over his mouth; Crane's beak had fallen open. Shifu looked like he was about to snap his chopsticks.  
>Po, on the other hand, was looking extremely guilty.<p>

"Um, no...no, we, uh..."

Shifu jumped down from his chair and headed for the door.

"Po," he said tensely. The panda put down the shard, accidently dropping and shattering it as he followed. Tigress mouthed 'sorry' to him and he nodded, looking rather fearful as he followed Shifu into the hall; the red panda shut the kitchen door.

Shifu looked at the floor for several long moments.

"Po," he then said again. Po looked at the kitchen door and, before he could react, dragged Master Shifu further down the hall.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it was just an opportunity and I had to take it, I-" Shifu held up a hand.

"The only reason I have not punishment in store for you, is because I can only imagine what Tigress herself will do when she regains her memory."

He left Po contemplating certain death in the darkness of the evening hall, and returned to the kitchen with a rather sadistic smile.

On the third week, she awoke before the gong with memory teeming in her head.

One in particular stood out:

"PO!"

The panda awakened immediately. He could hear his impending doom rushing in his ears before it burst through the door. He jumped out of his bed and held his hands up in defense as certain death herself prepared to thunder at him.

"Wait! Wait, wait," he said. Tigress's eyes looked as if they were on fire, but she simmered down enough to let him speak. Po cleared his throat.

"Before you kill me - and you have every reason in the world to do so - let me just say one thing."

He didn't give her time to respond before he grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her into a kiss.

The rest of the Five awakened to hear both the masters running (and on Po's part occasionally tripping) down the side of the mountain, Tigress snarling and Po screaming and laughing like an idiot as he ran just out of reach.

"OHOHOHOHOHOHO, WHOO HOOHOHO!"


	4. Eyes

'Eyes'

_Today, the Valley laughed._

_Sitting against the side of the entrance to the Golden Harvest Noodle Restuarant, one child watched in smiles. Around four years old, he was a ball of black and white fluff, a little panda amongst the geese, rabbits, and pigs of the Valley. The panda cub was known to wander, so his father kept a close watch on him as he tended to his customers inside. Mr. Ping, the owner of the noodle restuarant, had only adopted the young cub a little more than three years before, but to him, the monochromatic fuzzball was his own son. The boy munched on a dumpling, giggling to himself as he watched the fun around him. Many of the other children of the neighborhood were running around with their parents, warm despite the chilly weather, playing tag with each other, and getting 'piggy-back' rides from their fathers. Little Po stuffed the rest of his dumpling into his mouth and ran back into the restuarant as fast as his short little legs would carry him._

_"Dad!"_  
><em>He cried, running over to his father. Mr. Ping put a customer's empty noodle bowl onto the counter; he held out a wing to steady his young son when the little panda tripped. Young Po grabbed the edge of Mr. Ping's winter coat and tugged him toward the party outside. He pointed excitedly to the piggy-back-riders, looking up at his father with hope in his eyes. Mr. Ping scratched the back of his neck, unsure of leaving his restuarant for a minute, but another tug made him look down at Po. He had not put a coat on the little boy; the panda seemed perfectly content in the chill afternoon, his thick fur obviously protecting him. Xiao Po looked up at his father with wide eyes, green as jade and happy as sunlight, and bright as the diamonds on the river water. Mr. Ping smiled, melting.<em>

_The houses and streets close to the bridge turned into pure joy._

_Today, the Valley played._

_An elderly grandfather had taken up a flute and was adding playful music to the festivities in the street. The air was filled with screams of laughter and children joyfully shouting to their parents, urging them to run faster, encouraging others to put their hands in the air; piglets, young geese, a father with several young bunnies asking him to run over the bridge; and -_

_"Ho-**ONK**!"_

_Amongst the crowd, one father was under extreme strain: Mr. Ping had agreed to a piggy-back for Po, but he had not quite realized exactly how heavy the little ball of fuzz was. Mr. Ping was tripping over himself, overbalancing and overcompensating, but little Po Ping was having the absolute time of his life, probably more than any of the other kids. To the little panda cub, he was flying, enjoying his rolly-polly ride, laughing with absolute joy. His legs shaking and shivering, Mr. Ping stumbled over to the side of his restuarant and gently set his giggling son back down onto the ground before he collapsed next to the panda. Panting with exhaustion, the goose gasped for breath, fanning his face with a wing and opening the collar of his winter jacket, but little Po grabbed his father around the neck and shoulders and hugged him tight, still laughing. Mr. Ping saw the sunlit joy in his young son's eyes, and he couldn't help but grin himself._

_Today, the Valley smiled._

Mr. Ping set the small painting down onto the corner of the kitchen counter, grinning to himself.

"Noodles," he whispered once more, beak quivering.

* * *

><p>(AN) Inspired by a little picture in the end credits of KFP 2, set to Mr. Ping thinking about Po while he's off saving China from a deranged peacock.

I don't own Kung Fu Panda

dammit.


	5. Hero

'Hero'

It had been legend in the Valley for decades, and would be for centuries to come.

It was of a legendary warrior, who's talent at the art of kung fu was the stuff of LEGEND.

Of legend, man.

Across his mighty shoulders hung a stout, tattered cape. Upon his head was perched a simple farmer's hat.

Do not be decieved by the humble appearance of the shadowed figure. This guy is awesome. You might want to shade your eyes.

The panda was young, but skilled. Upon the mountaintop above five figures watched in silent amazement at the great Master Panda.

The ground trembled under his footsteps as he walked the land, searching for worth-while opponents to battle.

He stopped.

Danger.

"HALT, YE FIENDISH FIEND!" the young panda shouted, waving his, uh, weapon at the attacker. Two pigs ducked for cover.

The Legendary Warrior peeked from underneath his headgear, puffing out his chest. He gathered his cape around his arm, forcing it flap in the breeze, radiating machismo and covered in total awesomesauce. Within the walls of the popular noodle restuarant most of the customers looked on in bemusement and amusement as the teenage panda, already a foot and a half taller than anybody in the valley, waved the long handle of his mop at his invisible opponent, wrapping his noodle apron around his shoulders. Young Po jumped forward, taking a makeshift stance. He imagined the young Master Tigress watching in admiration, perhaps teaming up with him for an AWESOME double kung fu team!

"Wooo-aaaaaaa..." he screeched, kicking into the air, knocking over two bowls. He had gotten started in another one of his fantasies after half an hour of mopping the same spot on the floor, daydreaming the entire time until he finally grabbed a wok from the kitchen when his father's back was turned and started narrating the great adventures of the Legendary Warrior, accidentally hitting a few customers and breaking more bowls along the way. Mr. Ping looked out from the kitchen at the sound of the crashes, but was too late to stop his son from completely getting into one of his moods; the daydreaming teenager suddenly twisted and, farmer's hat shielding the innocent from his awesomeness, the Sword of Heroes in hand and cape flapping heroically in the wind, charged out of the shop to protect the innocent, conquer the evil, and radiate awesomeness to the whole of China.

* * *

><p>(AN) Disclaimer: Own Kung Fu Panda I do not

Inspiration taken from the end credits of the second movie, where there is an incredibly cute picture of what looks to be a teenage Po with a wok on his head, an apron on his back, and a mop in his hand, pretending to be a kung fu warrior.


	6. Start

There was a breeze up at the top of the hill; he felt it ruffle his fur pleasantly, warm, calm - with kung fu on his mind, noodles in his hand, and Tigress by his side he was the happiest panda in the world. The-

-no. Don't think about that. Don't think about that yet.

Tigress noticed him tense a bit. She looked over at him in her peripheral vision, chopsticks halfway to her mouth.

"What's wrong?" She asked, turning closer. Po raised his eyebrows.

"Uh...nothing. I was just...thinking," he said. Avoiding her stare he quietly slurped his noodles. The mountain became peaceful once more. Glowing inside all over again, he rested gently on the side of the Sacred Peach Tree, and smiled at Tigress, enjoying the fact that she liked his cooking. He was quite liking Tigress being friendly, and friendlier since Gongmen City. With unprecedented subtlety he managed to watch her face without her noticing (as far as he could tell), seeing the wind softly brush against her, watching as she twitched an ear to catch the sound of a falling leaf. She was watching the mountain around them as she ate, enjoying the tranquility as he was after so much chaos.

When she put down her bowl, he motioned to the hand.

"So, you really feel nothing?" He asked.

He did not expect her reaction. Her back tensed but her shoulders fell, and her ears laid back on her head. Po didn't know what he did wrong.

"I mean - I just...you can't feel anything in your hands at all?"  
>Breeze ruffled again as she turned to look at him. Watching his face, she raised a paw, clenching and unclenching it. Her body relaxed a bit and she smiled a bit to herself.<p>

"No," she said, "The nerve endings are too damaged for me to register touch."

Reaching behind her, she ran her hand over the bark of the peach tree.

"I can see I'm touching it, I can hear it and I can feel the movement in my wrist, but the hand? Nothing."

She turned and drained the last of the noodle broth. Po shuffled a little bit closer, watching her curl her fingers.

"Sooo...can you feel this?" he asked, and he poked her on her palm.

"Nope."

"Sooo...can you feel this?" he asked, picking up his discarded chopsticks and lightly tapping her fingers.

"No," she replied. Holding up her hand for Po to gently play with, she watched both him and the mountain around. She felt rather than saw his eyes on her again, as they had been minutes before, and wondered what had made him tense up for that brief moment.

They sat together, finished with their meal but enjoying the peace, for quite a while, watching the mist clear and re-form into new shapes along the rims of the off-distant mountains, watching the sudden activity of a small blossom breaking away in the wind, the excitement of movement when a leaf fluttered to the ground. After several minutes she heard Po move, as if getting more comfortable.

He moved again, still looking away. She leaned back and sat agains the trunk of the tree, palms on the roots at her sides, relaxing her board-straight posture for once.

Po looked down at the corner of his eye and sloooowly inched his hand over across the ground. He felt a brief glimmer of excitement at the potentiality of kung-fu Super Stealth Mode, crawling his fingers like a spider. He paused, then ever-so-awesomely inched his palm over the top of Tigress's hand.

The corners of her mouth twisted and she fought against a smile.

"Po..."

She said, still not looking at him.

"Oh, um, yeah, Tigress?" he said, sounding way too nonchalant. Silent, she looked over at him. His head sank a little between his shoulders.

"Sooo...you can feel that?" he asked, voice still relatively calm. Tigress nodded. He removed his hand, straightening up a little and twiddling his fingers. After another minute went by she heard him move; he leaned ver and softly kissed her on the cheek.

The mountain was still.

"Sooo...can you feel that?" he asked softly, a smile tipping his tongue.

Damned if she wasn't so sure, she replied; her cheek felt slightly numb. Within the minute he grabbed her hand again, smiling to himself. Her fingertips tingled, almost.

* * *

><p>AN: Just a little drabble.

I don't own Kung Fu Panda, promise.


	7. Solace

It was the first time that Mr. Ping had heard the boy cry since he had arrived. He was still waiting, in the back of his mind, for someone to come looking for the little cub, who grew a little bit bigger every day; in his heart, though, he had already accepted the giant ball of fluff into his life, and at three years old he had begun to forget to mention, when introducing friends, that the boy was adopted. The boy shared a passion for food as much as his father (adopted, Ping, adopted), though his forte lied in eating rather than cooking. Mr. Ping sat him down in the kitchen in the morning and talked to him while he made breakfast, the same thing every day, slowly teaching him the ups and downs and how-to's of cooking and running a kitchen. The cub listened and listened, every day for almost two years, uttering no sound other than a few baby-noises and soft laughs. He was so well behaved, so _quiet_. He never cried at thunderstorms (Ping admitted that he came and cuddled the cub every time, just in case he got scared, but he never did); when he fell or tumbled he sprang right back up; if something frightened him he would hug himself, sniffing softly, looking around for the goose to comfort him; even when he was hungry instead of bellowing like other babies all he would say was 'nada' (noodles) or 'baba' (for Father. Ping melted.) The goose, after much consideration and thought and a little huffing and puffing (this was someone else's son, after all, surely he had no right. Surely they would come and find him.) he finally named the boy Po.

Peace.

And now, after two years, he heard his boy cry.

His mind didn't quite register the alarm it should have at first - children cry, right? Ping furrowed his eyebrows.

Not my boy.

He pulled his tunic over his head and flipped his ponytail onto his back, putting on his belt as he jumped downstairs. He had stopped long ago trying to put child barriers on the stairs - apparently pandas (especially hungry ones) were rather agile for all their bulk. Ping was just glad his business was popular, else he'd never be able to pay for what made the cub happy.

He had learned immediately that leaving the boy alone was not the best idea, because whenever Ping left for an errand he'd find the kitchen an absolute mess and there was the boy, all upset and sniffling to himself as he munched on old dumplings and raw rice (Ping swore that boy had a stomach of iron). He had also figured out how to brighten all the gloomy faces, vanquish all the child-like fears and scares, and stifle any sniffle: Food.

As the crying became more and more intense Ping rushed down the stairs, until he bypassed the oddly not-destroyed kitchen into the restuarant, to find -

"PO!"

He screamed, flapping his wings and jumping up and down. Every single piece of his brand-spanking-new furniture, imported all the way from Thailand, was either half-destroyed or gone completely. Bits and pieces and little splinters were scattered all around the swept ground. He groaned inwardly at the very expensive wreckage and looked toward the urgent crying. Little Po was ardently chewing up a table leg, tears streaming through his fur, crying in between bites. Ping calmed himself down as much as he could and crouched down next to the panda, wrapping his wings around him. Po sniffled, hiccupping.

"Baba," he said though his throat was tight with tears, and Ping felt his anger flow freely away, melting completely as the boy dropped his half-eaten table leg and nearly broke the goose's ribs with a bear hug. Patting his son on the head, he looked around for the source of the sorrow, holding the panda's hand as he looked out into the street and back alley; it must have been a nightmare.

"Ah, well," he said, beginning to pick up the pieces left. The panda cub waddled toward him and nearly knocked him over as he grabbed Ping's leg, hugging it fit to break. He looked down at the still-sobbing panda and felt his eyes crinkle in a smile. Sweeping some debris aside he hugged his son again, and dried his eyes with his tunic.

Ping left Po to clear up the rest of the mess (damn that boy had an appetite) and set out spare chairs and tables himself, making a note never to buy fancy, expensive, and most of all _edible_ furniture again, before heading back to the kitchen to begin the day's cooking.

Little Po sat in his usual spot in the kitchen after eating the rest of the bamboo furniture, still gnawing a bit as a snack. He stared at the goose, as he always did, with wide, happy if somewhat red-rimmed eyes, a clear declaration of love and admiration. Ping found himself talking over the cooking business as he did every day, every day.

He never noticed that the word 'adopted' never entered his mind again.

* * *

><p>AN: Just a little scene inspired by the picture in the end credits of little Po eating Mr. Ping's imported furniture

I don't own Kung Fu Panda


	8. Exploration

"Sooo, Shifu, I was meaning to ask you about something..."

The Grandmaster sighed a little bit, his head drooping and back becoming less and less straight as he recognized a break in his meditation. He was beginning to wonder if there was even a point in him trying.

"Panda," he said, inviting Po to speak. He was surprised, however, when he heard a rather irritated puff of breath behind him near the doors. Po muttered something.

"What was that?" Shifu asked, irked. A heavy footstep hit the bottom stair around the Moon Pool, where Shifu had been attempting to meditate.

"Nothing," he huffed. "I just wanted to ask if maybe me and the five today-"  
>"Panda, I've told you before, slacking off is not acceptable."<br>"But we fought those bandits really well yesterday, we were awesome! Can't we just get one tiny little break-"  
>"PANDA!" Shifu said, his voice magnified by the hall around him. He turned, looking at Po in his peripheral vision.<p>

"YOU panda!" Po yelled, pointing a finger at his master. Shifu half-rose, grabbing his staff.

"What did you just say?" he growled, pointing the staff at the bear. Po rolled his eyes, looking unusually tempermental. He took another step up the stair; Shifu mentally refused to acknowledge the fact that the bear was almost three times his height.

"Every time you get mad at me you're always calling me 'panda'! Well, guess what, Shifu, you're a panda too!" He pointed an accusitory finger again, but retracted it quickly when Shifu prepared to hit it with the staff. But still Po kept on, waving a hand wildly at the Moon Pool.

"See? See there? Look!" he said, leaning over the edge of the pool, looking at both his and his master's reflections.

"You can't deny that we don't look really different, Shifu. And you know what, it really does kind of sting whenever you call me fat, especially since you've got a bit of your own gut yourself!" He said angrily, crossing his arms.  
>"You're always criticizing me on being a big eater, but do you <em>KNOW<em> how many dumplings you packed away while training me to fight Tai Lung? _I_ can't even eat that many that fast." With a huff and a puff and stomping down the stairs, the giant panda turned and made way for the exit.

"So you know what? Go on and seethe and be mean or whatever, but I'm damn well telling it like it is," he said, and almost slammed the door. "See you when we get back."

"Panda," Master Shifu said again, jerking Po out of his reverie. He was waiting half inside the hall, about to ask Shifu for a few hours off for him and the Five. He ran through his head again what he imagined the scene would be like, exploring the possible reaction to what would happen if he finally got irritated with his master and decided to call the old man out. He stepped inside the hall, feeling his irritation die; it wasn't worth it. This could only end in pain.

"Yeah, uh, I just wanted to ask if maybe me and the five could-"  
>"There will be no slacking off, panda, I've told you that." Shifu growled softly. Po legged it back to the doors.<p>

"Yessir!"

* * *

><p>AN: Po imagining what it would look like if he finally called Shifu out. Just exploring a small scenario, after watching Shifu calling Po out over and over and always saying 'panda' with such venom. And yes, I know that red pandas and giant pandas are not acutally related.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda


	9. Compulsion

He was in wonder.

He wondered how the fan-boy son of a noodle-maker could end up here, in the midst of a dense bamboo forest, his paws on the snow-white stomach on his favorite member of THE Furious Five.

Seriously.

Touching her. With his fingers.

And she watched him as he thought silently to himself, working calmly and smoothly. He had been so shy, at first.

In the presence of his life-long heroes the panda had ingratiated himself into their circle of friendship, his easy-going personality very easy to get along with. He would laugh with them, make jokes for them and smile about his own mistakes but he was still a little nervous, still a little insecure in the presence of greatness, even when his own shone through. Flustered at times and personable at others he practically worshiped the Five and was rather unnervingly enthusiastic at the chance to, with time, have them as his friends. In some areas, however, he would avoid them at all cost, which was a bit of a puzzler until the realization of how bashful the panda could be at times. And as they learned about him he learned from them as well; his training certainly not even close to complete, many of his lessons were not from his teacher.

One of the lessons he learned was that when on a mission, there is no such thing as personal. There is no such thing as privacy. And there is absolutely, positively, no such thing as personal privacy. If you were the only one to eat the highly suspect mushrooms during dinner, you would never be able to hide whether or not they made you vomit behind the boulder on the edge of the camp. If there was only one pool and six warriors hankering for a bath, there was no 'Oh, I'll just wait for you guys to finish', nor was there any 'That's ok, I'll wait until tomorrow', because some opportunities may come only once. Personal space, also, was a rare occurance.

And if you were wounded, privacy may as well not even be in your vocabulary.

They took pity on poor Po, after a while, when they noticed that only after he was sure they had gone to sleep would he venture into the bathhouse. For the first few days he had even refused to enter the place, unusually shy of being seen. Finally they got into a system that if Po was going for a bath nobody would do the same until he had left, much to the panda's relief. With the slight exceptions of perhaps Tigress and Crane, the Five were, for the most part, so used to each other that things like bathing in opportune streams and chatting together in the Palace bathhouse went unnoticed. The village had a few public bathhouses; perhaps the panda was just shy around his lifelong heroes. The panda was new. He would adjust in time.

Viper tried to be helpful and pointed out to Po that, technically, she and Mantis were naked all the time. This made it, if possible, even worse.

But he did adjust. Squeezing against each other in tight corners in an ambush, sleeping in whatever quarters they could get, and washing off in any available pond finally scrubbed away at the walls of the panda's bashfulness around his heroes, until he could now at least stand being in the same room as another bathing Master. He learned even faster when it came to the personal space, or lack thereof, given to wounded warriors, the most vivid memory of which was the horrid embarassment of having to have Master Tigress patch up an arrow wound on his butt. Well, technically, it was the back of his hip, but he'd had to drop his drawers a few inches so that his favorite member of THE Furious Five could sew up his backside. A spear to Monkey's side and another arrow to Crane's thigh made more awkward moments when he was the one left to help them patch up but, as with the bathhouse, he adjusted.

But the wonder never left. He was still sitting there, cross-legged, with his hands on Master Tigress's stomach. He wasn't sure if it could be called a mishap, a misfortune, a mistake, or just plain a miserable accident but let's just say that it involved several cases of gunpowder and a mysteriously eager-to-be-blow-up tree, resulting in a huge amount of wooden shrapnel, most of which decided to bury itself in the abdomen of the person in closest proximity - namely, Tigress. With Crane keeping watch above and the others in search of supplies for the return trip, their mission had, but for this...incident...gone rather well. But either way, Po was unusually silent, and she watched him layering clean cloths on top his knee. Carefully he kept his eyes on his hands as she undid her vest and, with one arm across her chest and the other propping her head, lay down in front of him. With a thin knife he carefully dug around for the medium-sized splinters, eyes flicking back and forth from her midsection to her face. She almost smiled.

"You're not hurting me, Po," she said. He grimaced, clearly at unease with his current job.

She was a bit surprised at how nimble and delicate he could hold his thick fingers, lightly dabbing away blood and flicking out the shards of birch wood. At one point he tucked his tongue out the corner of his mouth and quickly circled around to her other side, working at a deep splinter from a different angle. From above Crane, flying briefly to a lower branch of one of the overhanging trees, asked how it was going. Po was concentrating too hard to answer, and Tigress assured him they were fine. She did smile as the panda let out a triumphant cry at the removal of the last splinter. Arching her back a bit so he could reach under to wrap the bandages Tigress could feel the back of his fingers against her fur, holding back an involuntary shiver when his knuckles grazed her spine, an action which made him stiffen.

"Ohmygosh Tigress, I didn't hurt you, did I? I knew I was making these too tight, I always-" She stopped him with a hand.

"You're doing fine, Po. Don't worry." He looked at her doubtfully and she returned the face, arching an eyebrow, which made him smile. With a final flourish the panda tied the ends of the bandages into a tight bow and fluffed the ends delicately, grinning at her with hooded eyes. She smiled at him in thanks but this time could not hold back the shiver when he accidentally tickled her stomach, checking the cloths for tightness.

Suddenly she did not like his face. Especially the grin that was growing on it.

He tapped the tips of his stubby claws across her stomach again. She softly growled at him but could not help the small muscular spasm around her midsection. Suddenly Po sat up.

"Master Tigress, could you be ticklish?" He asked coquettishly. She batted away his reaching hand. Oh please, Po, don't go there.

"I am not, Po," she said evenly, "As it turns out, felines are simply partial to stomach rubs. Now, let me up-" He stopped her.

"Ah, ah, ah, not so fast. So you're telling me that THE Master Tigress, protector of peace and defender of justice and hero of honor, likes to have her belly rubbed." He would pay for the smile later on, she silently promised herself.

Was he going there?

Hell yes he was.

_...So, she's lying on the ground in a way so that all six of her ends are exposed, five of which can disembowel me with a single strike. She's also alreadly looking a bit annoyed._

Tigress saw the warning look in his eye and began to move for an attack but he had already gone there and, hell, not only had he gone there but he had packed his bags and kicked open the front door. Before she could grab him he had laid his hand flat on her abdomen and just rubbed. Her raised arms seemed to lock in position for a moment, before she allowed them to settle again. Emboldened by the lack of bodily organs spilling onto the grass, he crossed his legs again and worked with both hands, doing nothing but gently massaging and scratching.

_I am rubbing a tiger's tummy._

_Somehow I still have all my fingers and, even better, both of my arms._

And damned if she isn't grinning at him.

When Crane perched on the lower branch again to see how it was going, he noticed three odd things about the scene below him:

One was that Master Tigress had both arms crossed behind her head, her vest draped loosely across her chest.

Two was that Po seemed to be, with both hands nonetheless, massaging the feline's exposed midsection.

Three was that both were smiling.

The two Masters later denied ever having partaken in any kind of belly rub. The panda used the irrefutable evidence that, since he had all his appendages still attached to his body, clearly he had done nothing.

The tiger firmly denied the accusations of impromptu stomach massages, especially after being wounded so soon before. She did not completely remove her vest unneccessarily. She did not allow the panda to scratch his claws all over her abdomen. She did not 'purr in delight', thank you very much, Viper.

The vest had been completely discarded.

She could still feel his hands, and he could still feel her heartbeat.

There may or may not have been purring.

* * *

><p>AN Random idea coming from my flirty cat Cooper who cannot pass the chance to flop down onto the ground and stick her belly into the air in the hope of a tummy rub.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kung Fu Panda


	10. Standing Still

'Standing Still'

He lost balance as her large hand shoved him roughly out of the way.

It made little difference.

The blast was monumental. All their efforts to block the path to the harbor, every ship they destroyed and every cannon sunk to the bottom of the river that flowed through the city had all been for naught; Shen's massive cannon blasted everything out of the way - with a single shot, it threw them all into the water, battered and bruised by shrapnel, the stinging harbor meeting them with force, pounding them across waves and onto flotsam that floated in the turbulent sea. Truimphant to the point of being almost obscene Shen's prime ship fully unfurled her sails, her sisters coming to rest beside her among the debris in the harbor. Po burst forth from the water, climbing onto a bit of shipwreck, looking at the destruction around him, and the ships rearing out from the city.

The destruction that met his eyes led him to despair. Three of his companions lay weakened on a broken bit of ship, belayed and bedraggled. Master Shifu, the fastest of all of them, floated on another bit of wreckage between two ships. Over to his side Tigress was half in the water, barely keeping her grip on her bit of flotsam, half-dead to the world. Po paddled sorely over to her, reaching for her.

"Tigress..." he whispered, grabbing her hand as their two bits of debris softly collided. She looked up at the sound of his voice, cut, the fur on her face and paws burned and streaked with soot.

She had almost died for him. She could have, she would have died for him. She couldn't lose him again; she had to be there in time, this time. Her eyes squinted, burned by smoke and salt water. She heard his voice whisper her name and saw his vague shape, in and out of focus; she felt the touch of his hand.

She had been there on time.

Relief flooded what it could of her face, and her mouth smiled as well as it could manage, but no more. Weakened to her limits, her head dropped forward, exhausted, her body and mind burned out.

Po watched his strongest friend struggle even to stay conscious. His friends, his fight lay in wreckage around him; once again Shen had bested kung fu with brute force. Po wondered if it was time to give in, but as he looked up he saw Shen's largest ship before him, the peacock on the deck, watching him in the water. Shen smiled smugly, and the panda felt heat rising within him. Many, many thoughts ran through his mind as their eyes locked.

It was at this moment that the world stood still.

The fate of China rested on the burned, tired form in the water, clutching to his friend. This moment decided whether the world had fallen, or whether it had the strength to stand up again. The world stood still between the decision to defeat the peacock, or die trying.

Yes, many thoughts ran through the panda's mind. Some of them stood their ground; many of them turned and submitted and fled.

But one thought ran at the forefront, standing on the line between victory and defeat; one thought pushed it's way to the front of Po's mind as he stared at the peacock on the ship:

_ You got scratches on my Tigress._

Open that can of whoopass, panda, and beat that bird into the ground.

Fight.

A/N: I do not own Kung Fu Panda


	11. Precious Treasure

'Precious Treasure'

Out of all the duties he had to the palace - messenger, delivery, overseer of various preparations and events - this was one slightly lower-key job that he thoroughly enjoyed. The geese of the palace were often the ones who did things like dusting and cleaning practically anything that was over three feet off the ground, everybody else being rather lacking in the wing department to fit the requirements. Zeng was rather good at delegating but was not above work himself, and though he usually delegated others for the dusting of the palace (which was not a light task, believe you me), this was one area where the others knew to leave for him to do himself. He grabbed a goose-feather duster (the best kind, if he did say so himself) and flew up to the golden dragon clinging to the ceiling of the Sacred Hall of Warriors. Clutching the duster in one foot and a soft cloth in the other he gently removed the light covering that had slithered over the dragon's metallic hide, perfectly balanced in the air in this one job he loved almost above all others. He had always felt the power emmanating from the golden dragon, a sense of sacred and hidden energy that lay dormant, something that one could but glimpse as one looked into its fierce eyes. Zeng looked into them now, carefully wiping the cloth over the dragon's snout. Legends of dragons surrounded Chinese history, weaving in and out of legends and folktales, and here was one of the mighty creatures themselves, in his own home. When he was a child, and his father had been the caretaker of the palace, he had dreamed of being a dragon himself, or flying with the golden beast on one of its legendary adventures. He still smiled at himself, sometimes, remembering and still marveling at the great beast. The dragon seemed almost to move, snaking over the ceiling as if walking on air was nothing at all to it. Sometimes he could imagine that it was even alive; sometimes he wondered if it came alive in the night, when even Master Oogway had gone to sleep, slithering through the chill night air at speeds unbelieved, returning only at the very hint of dawn just before he came in to make sure everything was in order, and that the great dragon was still there, walking on the air. This was his favorite part of his day.

If only that Dragon Scroll wasn't such a picky bitch to dust.

* * *

><p>I just finished watching Kung Fu Panda and it occured to me, while Shifu was getting the dragon scroll down, how easy that thing must be to accidentally knock off. I'll write another on that exact topic at a time when it's not past my bedtime, but I felt Zeng needed some lovin' after being the goose who provided the feather that set Tai Lung free. If it's terrible, forgive me.<p>

I do not own Kung Fu Panda


	12. Challenged

The entire idea for mud-wrestling had arrived on a simple whim - not in a love-struck dream, thank you, Mantis. In all truths, he just wanted a fight where he had a clear advantage, and though he loved seeing the Five train and although he loved training with them, the Training Hall itself was not his favorite place. He quite enjoyed, however, various environmental awareness training sessions, whether it included fighting through six-foot snow drifts or climbing up a waterfall and, really, wasn't that what this was?

Stop talking, Mantis.

_All_ he wanted an advantage. So it came he challenged the master of the Tiger style to a match, one that took place in a large patch of mud that had been left by the previous night. The real battle began when the first person slipped and toppled into the muck underfoot; there, it was no-holds-barred, on Mantis's suggestion. Grappling moves were highly recommended. Po was under the impression that there was a betting pool going on around the sidelines.

Po had been practicing on slippery surfaces and there had been times in the noodle shop when he had had to cook on floors covered with whatever he had spilled, but still Tigress had sent him falling with one particularly well-timed punch to the gut, and he ended up with his back covered in brown gunk. She had not expected him to grab her tail on the way down, however, and finally they were grappling - and this time, Po found his advantage, once again, in weight. Though it was easier to overbalance his bulk prevented him from sliding around too much, and he discovered that though Tigress was still significantly stronger than him, if he leaned his weight into a move it was more difficult for her to block or redirect his attack, and the slippery mud on their limbs did not help.

When he finally managed to pull her down she kicked enough mud into his face to make him splutter, blinking heavily, but he grabbed her punch out of the air and, twisting her feet through the mud, swirled her around and grabbed her arms. Po pulled her into an enormous bear-hug from behind, wrapping his humongous arms around her torso and trapping her own against her sides, and he knew he had this battle taken. When she tried to overbalance him he took a wider stance and burrowed his feet securely into the mire, holding her an inch off the ground. Thoroughly annoyed now, she dug to tip of her tail into the waistband of his shorts, because she knew that the threat to 'pants' him before the rest of the Five would make him let go, but she had underestimated his desire to actually win. There was the feeling of terror in falling backward and then a jolt that coincided with a slight mixture of numbness and discomfort in her tail; he had fallen backwards, pinning the appendage under his back.

"Gotcha." The whisper tickled her ear.

Great.

There was a muffled flurry of whispers on the sidelines, along with the clink of coins and the slight scent of almond cookie:

_"Aw, man, he splashed mud on me..."_

_"I told you he would win-"_  
><em>"-Pay up-"<em>  
><em>"-Match isn't over yet, numbskull-"<em>

Could have fooled her, because damn, she couldn't move.

He had her in a close enough grip that Tigress couldn't pull her torso up enough to kick a leg between them and hit him in the groin, she was losing sensation in her tail, and the damn bear wasn't even grappling anymore - now he was just hugging her again! She could feel him smile, his chin tucked up over her forehead; he had her in a lock and he knew it, stupid plushy bear...

"Alright, Po, you win," she sighed.

"Awesome," he said.

"You can let go of me now."

"Nnnope!"

Tucked into his chest, with his arms wrapped snug around - this would be rather comfortable, if only she wasn't losing bloodflow to her hands. Being able to breathe properly would be nice, as well.

"Po, I can't feel my arms."

"Really?"

"Po, you're starting to hurt me," she said gently, though she wasn't in pain. He seemed to consider if it was a trick.

"Hug me back and I'll let go." The jaunty angle to his voice made her snarl. Just because I hugged you once, bear, doesn't mean you can get a hug any time you damn well want...

"Panda-"

He released her arms for a split second and twisted her around before she could react, and though he had her in another hold, he trusted her enough to let her hands loose. Ribs screaming, she almost chuckled, and finally pulled him into a grip. Beneath his fur his heart was beating, live and fast and full of what only could be called Po, a deep, deep beat that coupled with his breath, the warm gust of air that tickled the tops of her ears. She smiled and pulled him tighter, digging her arms into the mud beneath his back. You stupid, plushy bear.

"Hmm. Thanks for sparring with me, Tigress," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist and back in an even more bone-crunching pull, burying his face into the side of her neck. Tigress let go of him and, after tugging her tail from under his butt, offered a hand.

The bear was almost surprised to find that, as soon as he stood up, he was falling back down again. But he knew Tigress didn't like to lose, and he twisted in turn and, much to her chagrin, pinned her again. Silence, then...

_"That is NOT a double win, I'm not paying you-"_

_"She started a whole new match, and she lost-"_  
><em>"We were ONLY betting on ONE match-"<em>

_"You just can't handle the truth, can you?-"_

She was very glad that Mantis was fussing over who paid who, because if not SOME comment could have been made about how she and Po were in what only Mantis would call a compromising position. Her paws were pinned to the ground, and she was rather glad that there was no sensation in them, otherwise they would be screaming from the pressure of Po's knees. Straddling her, he leaned back and stretched his arms behind him, putting the rest of his weight on her legs and tail. Teaching him locks and holds only two days before now seemed like a pretty crappy idea.

However, though Masters Viper and Tigress had taught him well -

- she twisted her hips to one side, causing him to loose balance and pressure on one arm and leg -

- they didn't teach him everything. The panda cried out as she kicked him in the lower back, tumbled forward, and landed again in the mud; Tigress grabbed his arms and held them to the ground above his head, letting her claws dig in just slightly, and she straddled herself atop him far enough up his midsection that he couldn't kick her off.

If Po rolled she was toast.

If he moved his hands he would loose fingers.

There was silence from the betting group, but only temporarily. Using Monkey' cookies as most of the currency made valuable bets.

_"Does that count-"_  
><em>"Is this a new match or is it all a continuation of the first-"<em>

_"She said earlier that he won-"_  
><em>"That was just a trick, give me those-"<em>

_"He did pin her twice-"_  
><em>"We're betting to win! No cookies unless there is a clear winner..."<em> The conversation slowed.  
>Monkey faltered as the feline herself walked to him on silent feet and, not saying a word, took the small jar of currency-cookies from his hands. Po grinned at Monkey as he followed Tigress out the doors to the courtyard, happily accepting an offered cookie.<p>

* * *

><p>-And they continue for a romantic swim and candlelight dinner...<p>

...or perhaps just a bath with lamplight and a share each of Monkey's almond cookies. You decide.

Inspired by, when a few days ago, I was humbly, innocently walking around and discovered that, when not looking where you're going, day-old rain puddles are deadly slippery, especially when they have muck and dirt in the bottom. That's what you get for trying to read the reading material on the way to the class for which it is due, on the day that it is due, and not watching your feet. You are warned. I'm serious here.

No, not really. But in all seriousness I do not own Kung Fu Panda, pooh pooh pee dooh.

I'm not sure where 'you can't handle the truth' comes from, but credit to whoever it belongs to.


	13. Questioned and Answered

'Questions and Answers'

Now, in the interest of being honest, it wasn't _actually_ his fault.

It was late enough in the evening to begin lighting lamps; geese were quietly walking over the Palace, lighting candles around the place, being carefull not to disturb Shifu in his meditation and making sure the kitchen was well lit. There were only five of them around the Palace tonight; Monkey and Mantis had gone down to the village for almond cookie ingredients and would stop by Po's father's for dinner, and it was just as well. He didn't want them teasing him about this. Viper and Crane had accompanied him to the kitchen, watching as he cooked and chatting to each other. Tigress was off training. It had to be now.

He picked up a leek with slightly awkward fingers.

"Uh, guys...I, uh, I kinda gotta ask you a question..."

Viper smiled at him. He shuffled his feet, and finally turned his back to them, bustling over the soup and stir-fry he was making.

"Po?"  
>"Well, uh, you know how I wasn't really the most popular guy in the village before becoming Dragon Warrior, right?"<p>

Crane tilted the brim of his hat up a bit.

"Yes?"  
>"Well, uh, you know, that didn't really help me make many friends, much less a...how do I say it, a, well, a girlfriend, you know?"<p>

Viper tried to hold back a grin; Crane put a wing over his beak, attempting to cover a weak attempt at not smiling. Po could hear them and he was suddenly very, very glad to pretend that dicing tofu needed immense concentration. He pursed his lips and continued.

"Well, there kinda is this girl I like, and I was wondering if you two had any tips on stuff, you know, just general stuff...like, uh, smooching.."  
>"Po, have you ever even kissed a girl?" Viper asked frankly. He looked at her from the corner of his eye.<p>

"Well, you see, that's kinda the thing, I-" she raised a brow. "...Nooo..."  
>Crane lowered his wing.<p>

"So you mean, if you ever hook up with her, you don't want to seem like an idiot?"  
>"Exactly!" Po exclaimed. "Can you help me?" Crane paused a bit.<p>

"Well, I admit that I'm not exactly a libertine myself, Po. You might need to ask someone else."

The panda turned to Viper, tofu still in his hand.

"Vipe?" The snake looked over to Crane.

"Not really, Po. It's not as if any of us have much time for relationships. But we can probably give him a demonstration, can't we?" She said, looking across the table. Crane's wing moved back to his hat.

"What? I..."

"Yeah! Oh, come on, Crane, please? Help me out here?" Crane looked from the panda to the snake, and back again.

"Well, I mean-"  
>"Come on, Crane, we're both adults here, and friends besides. Don't make such a big deal over this," Viper said calmly, sliding over the top of the table. Po hurridly put the tofu into the frying pan, poured some oil and spices over, and grabbed a chair, eyes focused. Crane nervously adjusted his hat again.<p>

"This is significantly more awkward than I thought this conversation was going," he said, but looked toward Viper. It didn't particularly help that Po was watching with such intensity that Crane was half-expecting him to be taking notes in his head. Nevertheless, his face came closer and closer to Viper's. _Just do this for Po,_ he thought. _Just do this for Po._

Ok, that's just a little too weird.

Viper suddenly looked a bit more uncomfortable than before. Po, watching from the head of the table, could suddenly see how extremely awkward this could end up being; not awkward in the situational sense, but..

"Ok, I feel like you're about to peck my eyes out," Viper said, pulling her head back an inch or so before contact. Crane shuddered.

"Well, I have to admit that cranes are not particularly well-equipped for kissing. Sorry, Po," he said, looking over to the panda. Waving his hands before him, the panda shook his head.

"Oh, no, no," he said, "I'M sorry, I guess I was just freaking out a little and, well, you two seemed the most...approachable," he said. Viper smiled grimly.

"You're lucky Monkey and Mantis are down in the village...you planned it that way, didn't you?"  
>Po nodded, checking on the stir fry. Now that the situation was over his heartrate was getting back to normal, though a slight sense of foreboding began to fill him as he realized that he still had no idea what to do.<p>

"I'm glad Tigress trains in the evenings, too - that would just have made things _worse_."  
>"Tigress would have made <strong>what<strong> worse?"

Po stopped dead at the quiet voice from the doorway. The others turned around; the Master was leaning against the fram of the door, arms loosely crossed, one eyebrow raised in a mixture of amusement and confusion and something like annoyance. Po quickly turned around, chopping knife behind his back.

"He-hey, Tigress, I'm making you stir fry, you...want...some..." he faltered at her look.

"What's going on?"

"Po was trying to get tips on kissing," Viper told her smoothly.

The kitchen was silent, but for the bubbling of the soup.

Po looked rather guilty. Tigress lowered her arms, her face considerably softer. Crane cleared his throat; nobody could seem to think of anything to say.

Po quietly served the soup. Tigress took her bowl from the kitchen counter.

"_Where _did this all come up from?" she asked. Crane answered for Po; the panda was looking increasingly pink around the face.

"Po had found a crush, and he didn't want to look like an idiot in front of her if they ever got together." Po nodded in agreement but kept his mouth shut as he sat at the table. Tigress seated herself in her usual spot beside him.  
>"Po, you can't just fake these things," she said. "Everything should come naturally, and be bettered with time and practice. When the time comes everything will work out fine, so don't worry." Po said nothing, but put down his chopsticks and went to get the stir-fry.<p>

"Tigress, I know it's stupid, but I haven't even...I guess I just got a little nervous," he said, ears lowered. Smiling grimly, she stood, taking her plate. Po glanced at her and grabbed the pan. His hands were shaking enough to shake the stir-fry.

"You know, I guess it's-"

Tigress put down her plate, put a hand to the back of his neck, and pulled his face against hers. Po started for a moment, then promptly dropped the pan, spreading stir-fry over the floor and crushing one of his toes, if he was particularly in any position to notice. After several long moments Tigress pulled back, pushed her plate into the washing-up bucket, and swept some of the spilled food aside with her foot.

"Alright?" she asked, "Less nervous now?"

Po's ears were frizzled. Half the fur on the back of his neck was standing straight up, and he looked as though he had just been punched in the gut. He recovered in time to see Viper getting up from the floor; Crane still looked as shell-shocked as he felt. The tiger smiled.

"Just be yourself, panda," she said, sitting back down at the table. "Now you've had your first kiss. Will you be less nervous about kissing your crush now?" she asked. Po looked to the ceiling for a moment, picked up his bowl of soup, and, as he walked out the door, pecked her on the cheek.

"I just did," he said. Viper almost fainted again.

"Um, where are you going?" Crane called down the hall; he didn't particularly want to be finishing dinner in a kitchen with Tigress at the moment.

"Meditating," Po called back.

* * *

><p>Psssh. <strong>Meditating. <strong>_Riiiiight._...

In response to Mrjet, yes, I have wondered how on earth Crane manages all these fanfiction kisses, because it does seem to me like his partner would end up with a few fewer eyes than they started out with, but that you for prompting me to actually write a drabble on it. Hope it comes up to par!

I do not own Kung Fu Panda, no matter how much I mentally beg and plead.

Please forgive spelling mistakes, as usual - I tend to not proofread, so if there's anything particlarly bothering please let me know.


	14. Innocent

Stupid, plushy bear. Oh, this was too easy.

He turned away from the giant panda, held on both sides by chains and two of Shen Lang's guards.

"You're caught, panda. And you will watch as my victory spreads over the world."

Shen Lang was ruthless, tyrannical, and far too smart for this idiot they called the Dragon Warrior. Why, he couldn't even-

-There was an incredibly loud clink of chain, and when he looked back, the panda was standing there, innocently, and both his guards were on the floor.

Po followed Lang's eyes to the bodies below him. He jumped slightly, putting a hand to his chest in surprise.

"OH!"

He said, and inched away slightly. He then bent down for a closer examination.

"Uh...are you guys alright?"  
>Shen Lang looked on in amazement.<p>

"You sick or something? I mean, it's not contagious, is it...?"

Snarling, Lang gave the panda a Look, broke his sight away, and ordered three new guards.

"As I was saying: The victory over this new world shall be taken by-"  
>The chains chinked again and when he turned back, the three guards were on the ground just the same. Po fidgeted nervously.<p>

"Um, if you're going to have me guarded and stuff, could you at least get me guards that DON'T have, like, food poisoning or whatever this is goin' on here..."

Surely he couldn't best four guards, while in chains. Lang knew it was idiotic to turn around again, but some morbid curiousity caught hold of him, and he turned his back on the panda.

When he turned around again, all that was left moving was the shield of the fourth guard, which rounded itslf slowly down to the ground.

Shen Lang was now having fun.

Five guards this time. Turn around and try not to laugh.

There was a clinking of chain. Po looked up as Lang swirled back around, his hand halfway to his face. The panda blinked in surprise.

"..I was _SCRATCHING_...my _NOSE_. _Sheesh_," he muttered, slightly exasperated. His eyes blinked back and forth. Lang narrowed his stance, frowning heavily. Po then grabbed his chains.

"And now I'm kicking butt."

Oh, shi-

* * *

><p>Just a tiny drabble on Po kicking butt when a random villain's back is turned, then acting totally innocent to it.<p>

I don't own KFP, people, seriously.


	15. Under the Rain

'Under The Rain'

For those who looked, it was the epitome of tranquility and beauty; the entirety of their surroundings were greens and teals and pale, muted yellows, and with each ray of dimmed sunlight came thousands upon thousands of jewels sparkling upon every leaf of bamboo, every birch tree, every blade of freshening grass and flowers. But for the few breaks in the cloudcover the sky was darkened, a greyish-blue that drew out the green in everything below it. It was the renewal of life, itself, and in action.

For those who looked, that is.

For those who were actually experiencing it, it was a really miserable day with freezing rain and skies so dark that the occasional burst of sunlight turned into lazer-beams of retinal destruction. The Furious Five were soaked to the bone, and it wasn't getting any better. Po had the luck of a thick underlayer of fur, but even then the chill of the rain permeated his coat until he felt the cold and the damp and decided he didn't like environmental training sessions quite as much. And they would be stuck out here in this freezing wet wasteland for another damn day; not even Tigress wanted to travel through this weeping sky to reach the Palace by the beginning of morning. Po was rather an encouragement on this matter; there isn't really much you can do on a cold and rainy day, except sleep, in his opinion.

Oh, but Po wanted to sleep.

He was almost willing to call Tigress 'pussy-cat' if it would mean that she would knock him out, and maybe then he could get some sleep.

Nobody mentioned getting a fire going. It was far too wet to do anything but huddle up and dream.

Po, bleary-eyed, fell to the ground as soon as Tigress ordered a stop. Three of the Five crowded around him, used to using his bulk and his warmth on travelling nights; Viper wrapped herself around one of his arms, trying to bury herself in his fur, hissing with displeasure when the rain still got to her. Monkey and Mantis huddled close to his side, and Crane stood above, hat pulled as low as possible, one leg raised and beak tucked under his wing. Tigress herself hesitated, but they were in a protected area within the walls of the Valley, and she decided not to argue with Nature this time. Pulling her vest a little tighter, she sat cross-legged, leaning against Po's belly, and tucked her head low, ignoring the permeating rain to the best of her abilities.

Po would have been ecstatic.

If he could manage to sleep.

Po tossed.

He turned.

He twisted this way and that, to Viper's discontent.

He moved the other way and nearly crushed Mantis and almost made Crane lose his balance (and on the edge of sleep, too!)

Po was not a happy panda.

Tigress exhaled agitatedly when he moved around again. She and the others had been rather impressed with the Dragon Warrior's ability to sleep damn near anytime and anywhere, through snow and storms and bandits kicking down the doors; why, oh why, couldn't he just sleep now, of all times?

Finally the Dragon Warrior just snarled in frustration and took to his feet, dislodging everybody with a grumpy apology. Turning to the trees surrounding them, he walked up to the first one he saw, jumped up, grabbed a branch, (waddled on the air a bit), hoisted himself up, and PLUNKED down straight onto the tree limb. The Five looked on. Po could never go a minute without rolling around in his sleep (usually mumbling about a 'Legendary Warrior', or something). They only hoped he would land softly.

So Po tossed.

He turned.

He twisted this way and that, halfway falling off the branch.

He moved the other way and nearly lost his balance again.

Finally he curled into a gigantic ball of sodden fluff and sat still, the rain hat he had brought perched on the top.

Those who awoke various times during the night looked over occasionally to see how he was doing. Po said he didn't remember a thing.

Half an hour after turning in, Mantis blinked with unfocused eyes and watched as Po snored, hat over his face, lying on his back lengthwise on the branch.

Viper slithered up the tree an hour later and took position around his neck, almost overbalancing him as he draped perpendicular to the branch, legs and feet danging on one side and torso and head on the other.

Master Monkey was awoken by Mantis, who alerted him that he had started sleepwalking; Monkey replied that he had walked to the tree on purpose - with Po half-curled and half hanging in the air, if he could manage to get sleep in that tree, so could they.

Crane peeked from under the brim of his hat when distant thunder awoke him; the panda was face-down along the branch, head butted against the thick trunk and legs hanging from either side. With a little consideration, Crane shook the water from his wings and flapped silently to the branch above, tucked his beak, and fell asleep.

Tigress was awake when Crane had flown off; she sat in her meditation, listening to the night sounds and how the rain both amplified and softened them. With a brief crack of her neck, she turned around halfway, feline eyes seeing reasonably well despite the gloom; Po had managed to scoot himself halfway up the trunk, so that his back was on the branch, his butt was on the tree, and his legs dangled out into the air, raindrops dripping off his toes. The rainhat was protectig his tail from getting wet. Her cold face felt about to smile; she wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to warm up, a sudden chill ghosting through her insides at the awareness that none of her friends remained now with her. She turned her back to the tree, and pulled into a crouch, slinging her dripping tail around her and ignoring the mud sticking to it. She held back a shudder:

Everybody had left. The rain felt colder as she shivered, and the wind stung at her eyes. They had left.

Her ears suddenly pricked; padded footsteps behind her echoed in the rain - somebody was approaching her. A soft sigh met her ears, and she relaxed, before suddenly tensing again. What was he doing here now?

Po groaned in exhaustion, barely half awake, as he settled into the mud beside her, rested on his side, and pulled close himself against her. Her eyes closed at his touch; after a moment she burrowed nearer to him, feeling Viper sleepily unwind and slither halfway down the warmer collar of her vest, nestled between the two. Po's arm fell over her; she grabbed it and he pulled her closer, sheltering her, for the most part, from the driving rain. Finally approached by sleep, she smiled.

He didn't move till morning.

Apparantely the panda remembered nothing.

"Riiiiight..."  
>"Shut up, Mantis."<p>

* * *

><p>I don't own KFP<p>

I was watching the panda video on the extras of the 'Secrets of the Masters' DVD, and there was something extra cute about baby panda Po in Atlanta being able to sleep anywhere and any way, so...


	16. Change in the Weather

'Change in the Weather'

Autumn at the Jade Palace was as beautiful as he had ever imagined it. Though he was more in favor of spring, personally, there had always been a nagging, quiet little dream lurking amongst all the other Legendary Warrior daydreams, one that had included seeing the Jade Palace in autumn, and the dream had not been disappointed. From the vantage point he had he could see the almost entirety of the Valley of Peace, and except for a few, almost every tree in the Valley had been washed in reds and golds. Seemingly overnight the place he had called home for thirty years turned into a living sunset. Po smiled from the top step of his favorite yet least favorite staircase, resting after a decent day's workout.

That he had fulfilled the _other_ part of that particular dream during it suddenly caused a smile to play across his face.

"What are you smirking about, Po?"

The smile deepened. Master Tigress walked up to him, nodding to the rest of the Five, looking out at the Valley as she crouched at his side.

"Smiling? Me? Naaahh..."  
>The Master beside him chuckled, and it suddenly made him grin wider that he knew why she was in a good mood.<p>

"Yes, you."  
>"I'm not," he said, clearly lying through the huge grin smacked upon his face. Tigress herself smiled.<p>

"Yes."  
>"No I'm not, you are."<p>

Tigress stood; Po felt the slightest glimmer of wariness, wondering if he had annoyed her, but she just jumped down a few steps, circling around him in a sly walk. He refused to take his eyes off the valley, and in his peripheral vision, she vanished amongst a background of red and orange trees. As she passed his other side, the tip of her tail _just_ touched the end of his nose, making him wrinkle it against the tickle.

Po's eyes narrowed. He pursed his lips until they were but a thin line, watching her out of the corner of his eye as she moved slowly out of his sight, her padded paws making no sound against the stones. He stayed perfectly still. The other Masters held one collective breath, not wanting to miss the show.

There was the slightest clatter as a pebble shifted behind him.

"HI-YAH!"

The panda yelled, jumping to his feet and twisting around, arms raised to fight.

There was nothing behind him.

Do not be fooled with a false sense of security, he warned himself, because, as he very well had discovered earlier, Tigress was a master of disguise in autumn. The thought made the corner of his mouth twitch.

The Legendary Warrior, in one of his not-too-long-past daydreams, had once played hide-and-seek with the famed Master Tigress. In autumn. It had been a tie.

In reality, Po had lost spectacularly in the 'environmental awareness' training, being a black and white ball of fluff when he needed to be a black and orange, slinky form of lithe muscle. Monkey had fared rather well amongst the golds of the trees. Mantis had forfeited after one game, truthfully claiming that he always won. Viper had done ok, and Crane had lost a few. Everybody found Po.

Tigress was the only one who stayed missing throughout the entire day, though she answered when they called after her. On the top of the stairs was the first time anybody had spotted her since the 'training' had begun.

He sensed her rather than felt her. And he knew Tigress. Hiding in a bush just wasn't her style. Without further ado, he took a step up the stairs, paused, then turned around and pounced. They tumbled down the stairs; Tigress had been prepared for his pounce by the tensing in his shoulders, but Po had overbalanced her, causing her to slip and bang her knee. She kindly repaid Po with a punch to the head, and he repaid her in kind by completely crushing her as he fell forward and bounced on the stairs. She kicked him off but continued to roll; he had wrapped her tail around one hand, kneeing her in the gut as he did so. She blocked his next hit and raised a paw to claw him, but he rolled on top of her, trapping the arm against the stair. The rest of the Five looked on, wide-eyed, in relative amazement.

"Po, _get off_ me!" Tigress growled, the panda sitting across her legs. He tried, but with her tail tangled and trapping both arms behind his back, all he could do was wriggle his legs a little bit. She used her free arm to push him off and helped him to untangle his arms. Rubbing some feeling back into them, Po grinned to himself and reached over to her.

"Gotcha," he whispered as he poked at her.

She wasn't there. He heard the faintest rustle of fabric, and she was gone. He almost swore he saw a red tree shiver.

The Legendary Warrior's eyes _narrowed_.

"Oh, it is on," he whispered.

* * *

><p>I don't own KFP. Just a little idea.<p> 


End file.
